Joey Barton Breaks His Silence On Last weekends Holocaust Remark
Former Clarets midfielder Joey Barton who is the current manager of Bristol Rovers has been criticised by sections of the club fanbase, media and Jewish leaders following his comments made in the wake of his sides 3-1 defeat to Newport County last Saturday.

After the match, Barton was bemoaning the inconsistencies in his teams performance particularly his defence saying, “I said to the lads during the week, the team’s almost like musical chairs. Someone gets in and does well but gets suspended or injured. Someone gets in for a game does well but then has a holocaust, a nightmare, an absolute disaster.”
Despite multiple request from a number of media organisations, Bristol Rovers Football Club have refused to offer an explanation of their manager’s comments. As previously reported, Joey Barton has taken training this week at The Quarters as normal and is fully expected to be in charge of Saturday’s game against Harrogate Town.
Joey Barton (Rovers Manager) has however taken to Twitter to quote a passage from Persion poet Rumi “A Great Wagon” which explores concepts of non-judgement. Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Rumi was a 13th century poet, musician and spiritual guide, who has had a considerable cultural impact throughout the Muslim world, in particular Turkey and Iran, but is also considered the best selling poet in the United States.
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Joey Barton will address the media for the first time since the fallout from his comments with a press conference scheduled at The Quarters on Thursday, having been brought forward from the traditional Friday pre-match briefing. Bristol Rovers travel to Harrogate in Sky Bet League Two having won just four of their opening 14 fixtures after a major summer rebuild of the squad following relegation from League One.